Here’s something both you and your boss can agree on: Workplace teams are better when they include your friends.

Studies demonstrate that when friends work together they tend to perform better than acquaintances or strangers. The analysis of 26 different studies showed that teams with friends tend to perform better when the groups are large and the focus is on maximising the output.

“Working with friends is not just something that makes us feel good – it can actually produce better results,” said Robert Lount, co-author of the study and associate professor of management and human resources at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.

Seunghoo Chung, a PhD student in management and human resources at Ohio State led the study, presenting the findings online in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, before publishing them in a future print edition. The researchers analysed studies involving participants with, and without, established friendships as comparison groups, which also took in account task performance measuring.

The overall number of the groups involved in the analysed 26 studies was 1,016, composed of 3,467 participants.
The overall results suggest that groups with established friendships had a clear performance advance, whether the activities undertaken required mental or physical efforts, and the results were consistent with different age groups. The impact of friendship appear to be higher in larger teams.

“Friends can coordinate tasks more effectively,” Chung explained. “They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and can figure out how to break up the work in the most efficient way.”

Findings showed that friendship groups did better in tasks where the goal was to produce the most output, but did not have an advantage when the goal was to find the optimal solution to a problem. When the goal is maximizing output, the biggest issue is often keeping people motivated, and that’s where friends are helpful, Chung said.

“When you’re working with friends, you tend to be in a better mood and can work through the adversity and strain that sometimes comes from having to produce a lot in a short time,” Chung said. But when the goal is coming up with the best answer to a problem, there may be an upside to working with strangers, Lount said.

People who are not friends may be more likely to constructively disagree, to talk about the pros and cons of a proposed solution, and be less likely to just go along with the crowd. Overall, Lount said the results suggest that managers should consider (non-mandatory) social events and team-building exercises that encourage friendships.

“When employees are having fun together, it may have long-term benefits for productivity,” he said. “As a manager, you must balance allowing friends the opportunity to socialize, but also making sure that they don’t spend too much time at the water cooler.”

The bottom line is that managers should look for ways to build teams around groups of friends, Chung said. “It is a good way to enhance performance,” he said.

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti

Journal Reference: Chung, S., Lount, R. B., Park, H. M., Park, E. S (2017). Friends With Performance Benefits: A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship Between Friendship and Group Performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin; 014616721773306 DOI: 10.1177/0146167217733069